Let It Be
by Alonia143
Summary: Katarina Shades lives out in the country. What does she find in her barn? Please read and review, thank you! Christmas Fic. COMPLETED


_**Let it be**_

_**Summary:**__** Katarina Shades lives out in the country. What does she find in her barn?**_

Disclaimer: I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Let it be Christmas, nor do I make any money from this.

_**Author's Note:**__** Aurora mun, this is for you. Merry Christmas, hon. When you read this, listen to this song by Alan Jackson: Let it be Christmas. You'll understand, trust me. Also, imagine just waltzing to this song with Leonardo, le sigh.**_

* * *

_Let it be:_

She stomped through the paddock where the prized horses were let out to graze. The sun was slipping past the hills fast as it was December.

The farm that she was on was her family ancestral farm. It was handed down from the eldest son to the eldest son whenever the father had passed on.

"Kat! You out here, darling?" she heard her mother from the back porch.

"Yeah, mom, I'm here," she replied, grinding her teeth together.

Her mother walked over and asked "So how did it go?"

Katarina's mother, Khloe Shades, was the Manger of the King Farm that was down the road and past Ingles Christmas Tree Farm and gardens.

"Why are we friends with them?" She asked her mother instead.

"Honey, the King family has been here for a lot longer than our own family-"

"No they haven't. They have been here for only 48 years. I looked them up. And their daughter is a total brat," Katarina cut in.

Her mother gave her a long eye and said "Because being nice to them is the right thing to do. Now, how did the interview go?"

"They didn't hire me because the daughter kept spewing these lies after it was over with. I had to go to the bathroom and asked to use it, that's how I know, mom," Kat huffed, glaring at the ground.

"Well, that will come back to her ten folds worse. Now, how about you do your chores and come inside?" her mother said, shaking her head at that.

"Sure," Katarina replied and walked towards the massive barn.

Walking towards the barn to muck out the stalls of the horses, Kat heard the nervous kicking and neighing from the fast animals.

"Whoa, easy guys, I'm here," she said aloud when she walked into the mouth of it.

One horse, Ashka, snorted and slammed his hoof into the wooden frame of his stall.

"Ashka, enough," Kat warned him.

His ears flanked backwards as he pawed the ground.

Ashka was a beautiful blue roan quarter horse that had no white markings. His body; from the neck to above his tail was a light gray color with black specks and spots dotted across. His mane and tail and stockings, along with his face, were pure black.

People call them "blue" because of the gray-ish body area in contrast to the black mane, tail, leg markings and face areas.

Ashka was only 2 years old but, was going through his "fading" stage. From being purely black to it fading on his body.

Katarina was the one who named him when he was born in the Spring.

Everybody who saw him knew that he came from the King's farm because the only known roan stallion was Blue Skylar Ridgeland. When Ashka was born, it caused so much grief for everybody that when Ashka turned 2 years, he would be sold to the King's at top dollar or so Katarina's dad agreed to.

Katarina was severally hurt by this because she was the one who took care of Ashka ever since he was born; mucking out his stall, putting fresh hay and water, putting a blanket over his body when it got cold or rained out or even putting a fly mask on his face to protect him from the annoying flies that attacked his eyes. Had the Vet and blacksmith out to see how he was doing with his health and feet.

She also bonded with Ashka in some way. Her mother voiced this to her dad, but he would hear none of it.

The rustling caught Katarina's attention in the back of the barn. Ashka snorted and shook his head in annoyance.

Katarina slowly crept down where she heard the noise. Her heart beating wildly, the overwhelming emotion of fear gripped her body as she grabbed a shovel for mucking out the stalls.

Her breath flared out around her when she breathed to calm herself down a little. It could be that pesky raccoon that always destroys the hay bales.

Jumping around the corner, Katarina had the shovel high above her head but gasped in utter shock.

There, lying on the ground with multiple wounds and blood dribbling down his massive green body was a person.

"What?" she asked, her mind trying to figure out who this person was.

He had pants and shoes on, but the chest part was missing. His blue bandana mask was lying upon his collarbone; shredded.

"Who are you?" she asked aloud, walking closer to him.

If he was awake, he would move away from her, but he was still and had his eyes closed.

Suddenly it hit Katarina: this person needed help fast.

"Oh my god," she said, running towards the First Aid and medical kit that was in the tack room.

Swiftly running back over to the mysterious person, Katarina knelt down and flipped the locks with her thumbs on the first aid kit box. She glanced at what she needed, but looking at the massive body before her, it wouldn't be enough.

Heaving her body back onto her feet, she ran towards the house.

"Kat? What's wrong?" her mother asked from the dining room area.

"Nothing," she called out, heading upstairs.

"Something must have happened. What is it girl?" her dad then asked her next.

"Nothing that I can't handle. Ashka just skinned his knee," she lied to them.

"Well go get him cleaned up," Her father said, going back to reading the newspaper.

Kat rushed back outside with a towel, a bucket full of hot water and antibacterial cream for the wounds.

She walked hurriedly over to the far left corner and sighed in relief upon seeing that the person was still there. She knelt down on the floor mat and started to clean this guy up.

The wounds upon his arms, his chest and head were severally deep. First she had to stop the bleeding somehow.

The clear water suddenly turned red over time and the warmth of the hot water was cooling fast. Kat walked hurriedly into the tack room, grabbing the sewing needle and thread as it was her only hope to stop the bleeding.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled to him as she got the right amount of string and started to sew his wounds up.

It took an hour and half to get the stitches finished to her liking. When she started to wrap his arm and head she heard Ashka stomp the ground again.

Looking over her shoulder, she saw a massive person looking around. Similar in the blue mask guy, but had a red mask instead.

"Leo?" she heard him whisper low.

Ashka neighed loudly at this intruder.

"Easy boy. I'm just looking for my brother," the red mask guy whispered low.

"He's over here," Kat said loud enough for him to hear.

"What are you doing to him?" the guy snarled low at her when he was closer.

"He's wounded. I just finished wrapping him up," Kat retorted back, glaring.

"You're not part of the Foot," the red mask guy then said.

"Uh, no? Who's the Foot?" she asked him, looking confused.

"Our enemy and the ones who nearly killed my brother. Donnie will look over him when I get back to April O'Neil's place," he answered, gently lifting his wounded brother up and onto his back.

"The O'Neil's? I know where that farm is," Kat said, looking at him.

"What's the deal with your horse?" he asked her curiously.

"People have said that we stole his sire to mate with our loser mares. Ashka isn't going to be here that much longer, since my dad made a deal with the King's," Kat explained to him.

"Pff, I'll talk to you later, kid," he said, walking hurriedly into the night.

Kat heavily sighed as she went about cleaning and putting things away.

_Several days later_

Katarina was walking down the road. Tears slipping down her face.

Ashka was sold and in his new home when she was out looking for a job.

Her father had done it so that she wouldn't "interfere" with the process of it all. She just couldn't understand why he would do this now.

Now, she felt lost and didn't want to be anywhere near her farm.

It was getting closer to Christmas and Kat didn't want anything.

The ground was turning hard from the frost and ice as the temperatures were dropping day by day.

Not knowing how long she walked the country roads when she was miles from her farm and was heading into the small town of Duvall.

It was a cute little town where everyone knew everyone and whenever an outsider came into town, the fake smiles would be put on.

Kat heavily sighed as she walked towards Clair's Diner.

As she stepped through the door with the jingle bells on the front, she saw a lot of people gathered around one table.

"Guess whose back, Kat?" a man smiling at her.

"I don't know, who?" she replied, not feeling like talking to anyone right now.

"April O'Neil and her new husband, Case Jones," he said, looking her up and down "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just get me the usual, Greg," she replied, sitting in the stool.

Kat kept to herself as a lot of the towns people walked to and from April's table.

"I can't believe that he's finally back," she heard in the right hand side of the diner.

"Yeah, finally admitted that he was in the wrong and got that ugly horse back. I wonder how old Trina is doing. I bet crying her eyes out over that stupid steed," she heard this one girl sneer.

Katarina knew that voice.

It was Nicole King. The daughter of Wyatt and Nora King.

"So what are you going to do with the horse now, Nikki?" another girl asked her.

"Sell him off. What else can I do with a horse that skinned his knees so badly that the scabs are all what people will look at," Nicole sneered back.

Kat bit her lower lip.

For the past years, the farmers around Duvall have been losing more and more money, except the King Family. They kept getting richer with each passing year and it didn't help that Nicole would smear it in everyone's face with buying the latest fashion or something.

"When will you do it?" another person asked her, bored.

"I already put him up for sale. Hopefully a buyer will get him soon," Nikki replied, rolling her eyes.

"How much is he?" the first girl asked.

"$100,000 if anyone is serious on wanting him and will go towards my college funds," Nicole replied, getting up and then walked away as her friends soon followed her.

Kat watched them walked past her and out the door.

"I take it you know those people?" a woman asked Kat.

"Huh?" she said, looking up at her.

However, what Kat saw was just the fine knitting of her coat as it was up around her face.

She straightened up and looked at the red hair woman before her.

"Who are you?" Katarina asked her back.

"Sorry, I'm April O'Neil," April introduced herself.

"….that green guy with the red and blue mask…." Kat whispered low, remembering.

"H-How do you know of Leo and Raph?" April asked her in shock.

"One of them was hurt really badly. I had to stitch him up for close to an hour or so later," Kat told her.

"They're my friends and Leo just woke up. He doesn't remember much, but we are all grateful that you helped him with what you have," April said, smiling.

"You're welcome. Just wish that it didn't come at a price," Kat suddenly remembered Ashka.

"That horse… that group of kids were talking about. That was your horse?" April asked her curiously.

"I helped his mother give birth to him, hand raise him to get used to people handling him, breaking him in having a saddle on top of him and how to get use to having a bit in his mouth. I did everything and now I won't ever get him back," Kat explained to her.

"Just how much is he?" April asked.

"I honestly don't trust Nicole, she could be lying but, Ashka, as she said, is worth $100,000," Kat rolled her eyes at this.

"That's really"

"Stupidly high, for a 2 year old colt? Yeah, it is. Normally it would be around 15,000 because of his pedigree," Kat further explained to her.

"You really know this stuff," April commented.

"I used to make my living this way. Where I would show them, breed them and if they did excellent at the World Championship, their prices go up," Kat answered.

April slowly nodded and then said "How about you stop by the farm and see an old friend, tonight,"

"I'll see what I can do now," Kat said back.

"Great, come on!" April smiled and headed for the exit.

Kat followed April to an old 1966 Volkswagen bus that was green.

"Whoa," Kat said in awe.

"It's my husbands," April swiftly told her.

"You don't normally see these on the road that much," Kat answered, getting into the passenger seat.

"Care to tell me while we drive to my farm, on why you stopped being a show woman?" April asked her, keeping her eyes on the road with her seatbelt on.

Silence filled the van as Katarina thought this over.

"My dad had gotten into a car accident. We had to sell a lot of the mares and foals just to pay off the medical bills. But even with doing that, it wasn't enough," Kat explained as she looked out the window.

"I noticed that a lot of farms, being that they have animals or growing things, are not doing so well. Why is that?" April asked, coming to a stop sign.

"The taxes keep going up for all of us except the King's place. They have a foot in the door with the mayor or something like that. Everyone is struggling to stay here, but it's out in the middle of nowhere," Kat replied, staring at the floor of the van.

"That's not right," April said, focusing more so on the road now.

Kat suddenly got a feeling and looked backwards when April pulled over. There running wildly was Ashka.

"Ashka," Kat jumped out of the van.

"Kat!" April exclaimed frightened.

From the opposite direction, there was a semi truck coming down the road.

"Ashka!" Katarina yelled loudly.

Snorting and ears pinned back, he reared up; nostrils flaring, eyes held fright as his hooves pawed at the sky.

"Ashka!" Katarina yelled again, running across the road now.

"_Katarina!"_ April screamed when the semi truck was barreling down on her.

Normally, when someone did this, they would get killed. But, April knew that someone from her friends was following them.

He had jumped down, grabbed Katarina and jumped backwards towards the van as the semi truck honked its loud horn.

The wind was knocked out of Kat as she lay in the tangled limbs of this person.

"What were you thinking!" she heard him scolding her.

The semi truck drove on by as Kat looked into the crystal blue eyes of the blue masked green person.

"You!" she exclaimed in awe.

"Yes, now, why did you do a stupid thing like that? You could've gotten killed!" He retorted angrily.

"Ashka," she said, looking over into the fields.

And just like that, he was gone.

She stood and looked around frantically.

"Ashka!" she yelled, running from them.

April hurried over and helped her friend up asking "What do we do now, Leo?"

"Find her horse. If she does any other job that isn't showing them, she'll die from within. Donnie looked up the real price and it's just $1000 dollars," Leo replied, wincing a little.

"Come on, let's get you back to the house," April said, helping him into the van.

"Ashka!" they heard further down the road.

Leo looked and sighed "No, we help Katarina with getting her horse back,"

"Alright, but you're staying in the van," April told him, smirking when he groaned.

April got the van started and drove a little more slowly down the road as they saw Katarina holding out her hand in the middle of a field.

Ashka was pawing at the ground; kicking up dust and dirt, ears pinned backwards as his nostrils flared and snorted.

"Come on Ashka, it's me. Kat," she softly said, trying to get him to calm down.

He charged a little at her, but the broken halter lead rope was caught on something on the ground.

"Come on, its okay," she calmly said to him, walking slowly forward.

Leo and April watched in awe as a short woman walked towards a 1,200 lbs raging frightened animal.

"If she gets hurt," Leo started up but trailed off.

"She'll live with it. She's a cowgirl, Leo. She's …lived in this kind of world for her whole life. Someone like me would never do something like this," April said, her eyes focused on how close Katarina actually was now to the blue roan horse.

"Donnie to April or Leo," Donnie's voice came through.

"Go Donnie," Leo replied, keeping his eyes on the woman before him.

"I have some horrible information that you need to hear," Donnie said back.

"I'm listening," Leo said to him.

Meanwhile, out in the field Katarina finally wrapped her fingers around the lead rope and had calmed Ashka down.

Bending his graceful neck down, he looked into her eyes.

"Wait…you're…you're not Ashka," she said, realizing that this wasn't her horse.

The horse before her was one that was older, wilder and had seen some fights in his earlier days.

"If you're not Ashka, then who are you boy?" Katarina asked, trying to keep her voice friendly.

The stallion just stared back at her. He wasn't going to talk back because animals can't talk like humans can.

She unhooked the lead rope from the wedge rocks and walked him down the road.

"Is that Ashka, Kat?" April asked from the van.

"No, it's a completely different horse. I mean stallion," she replied, wracking her brain.

A truck with a horse trailer pulled to the side of the road as Katarina swallowed.

"I can easily load him and drive you two to your farm," the man said with a buzz cut hair.

"That's my husband, Casey Jones," April informed Kat after seeing how scared she was.

"Thank you so much," Kat replied as she led the stallion to the trailer.

The stallion however, didn't like what was going on. He pulled back neighed loudly.

"Easy, easy. Come on. Come on Ash," Katarina gently said to him, rubbing his neck in comfort.

He put up a little bit of a struggle, but when the gate was down and the doors were clear for him, he jumped into the trailer.

"That's something that I will need to work on with you," Katarina said to herself.

"I guess they're not supposed to jump in?" Casey asked her, helping bring the gate back up.

"No, they're supposed to walk right in, not jump or anything else," Kat replied back.

Leo walked over to them, not liking how it was pure daylight and anyone could see him.

"April and I have to head back to the farm. Katarina, I want to say this: Thank you for saving me that night. If there is anything that I can do, I would do it," Leo said, bowing to her in respect.

"You're welcome, green," she said unsure of his name.

"Leonardo," he smiled when he straightened up.

"I like that," Katarina smiled back "But, how did you recover so fast?"

"I'm still recovering. Just that I wanted to see how you were doing," Leo replied, looking at her.

"Terrible. I want my horse back," she said, looking at the ground as the sadness engulfed her.

Leo walked over to her and said "I am sorry, Katarina,"

She nodded and walked over to where Casey was standing.

"Let's head back," she told them.

"Sounds like a plan, Boss," Casey teased her, smirking.

"Casey," April and Leo said together.

Kat just smiled at this and hopped in the passenger seat with Casey.

When they pulled up to the Farm house of April's, there was a brand new fence, barns and pasture cut down to the ankles.

"Whoa," Kat said in awe.

"They work fast when they feel like it," Casey told her, slowly making a U near the barns and round pen.

"You can actually dry that out and roll it up. The long grass, I mean," Kat informed him.

"The boys probably are doing just that," Casey said, sticking his head out the window to see well.

"I don't want him to think that the trailer is a bad thing," Kat took over the situation now.

"You're the boss," Casey said again, parking the truck.

Kat got out of the truck, walked over to the trailer as there was another green man but with goggles as classes.

"You must be Katarina Shades," he greeted her, smiling "I'm Donatello or Donnie for short,"

"Nice to meet you, but how did you know my name?" she asked him, unlatching the back of the horse trailer.

"I…uh…" Donnie floundered.

"He's the genius of our family, Kat," Leo swiftly stepped in "He always looks up background checks on anyone who enters our world,"

Kat nodded, not liking it but, what could she do? The gate softly went down as she walked over to Ash who had crazy eyes of fright.

"Easy boy, it's okay. I'm here," Kat cooed at him, softly rubbing his neck and chest.

Ash pulled on the lead rope but, Kat made sure to stay in that trailer until he was comfortable within it.

She took the lead rope, untied the knot and clicked with her tongue as she backed him butt end first. He swung his head a little to the left, ears going backwards, then forwards and then backwards as he was guided out of the trailer.

The others were watching them walked slowly to the round pen. Ash started to run around it, after the gate was latched and he was free of his lead rope.

"Is this Ashka?" the orange green person asked her.

"No. This is Ash," Kat replied to him, keeping her eyes on the bucking stallion.

"I looked up some research," Donnie began "and from what I can see, the King's family is dealing some shady business. I also found out, that their prize winning stallion, Blue Scenery King, ran from their stables when he was just a yearling,"

"Yeah, it was during a 100 year old thunder storm. We looked and looked for days for him, but we could never find him," Kat said next, following Ash around and around in the round pen.

"Is this him, then?" Casey asked her curiously.

"Could be. But he won't let me anywhere near his mouth right now and I don't want him to think that it's okay to start biting people," Kat replied, focused on her work right now.

"What are you doing?" the orange green person asked her.

"Out in the wild, the lead mare will chase and chase the 2 year old colts out of the herd. To form their own bands and such from the mares and foals. She will focus in on him and continue to run him out until he's at the edge of the boundary of the herd's habitat," Kat informed him.

"Mimicking what the lead mare does," Donnie simplify it to his brother.

Ash was trotting and sometimes bucking in the air in frustration in the round pen.

"That's Mikey. You already met Raph," Leo introduced his family to her.

"Hi, shorty," Raph grunted to her.

"Hi, hothead," she replied back, which earned snickers from everyone.

For 45 minutes, Kat was at this, to the point where Ash had his head down, his ear was pointed towards her at all times and was smacking his gums.

Leo watched her turn around as Ash stood there looking confused at her. They all watched that Ash suddenly didn't know what to do, except take a hesitant foot forward.

Surprisingly enough, Ash nudged Katarina's left shoulder when he reached her. She turned around and petted his nose as she walked around the round pen.

"I use to do this with Ashka. When he was just a yearling. He didn't like it, but after awhile, he got the hang of it," She told them all.

"You really know your horses," Raph commented to her.

Katarina just smiled politely at him.

_Christmas Day 2 years later_

Katarina sat near the warm cackling fireplace as the presents were all opened and even though she didn't get what she truly wanted; Ashka, she got what she needed.

She couldn't get the money to buy him, as someone had done. Leo had to break the news to her on it. He knew that she was a strong confident woman; it gutted him to see her sob and shatter like that.

Katarina slowly came around with Ash. He helped her heal and move on from that event. After she put his clean black horse blanket on his body, Ash refused to go run in his pasture that Christmas snowy day.

"Come on bud, go run," she told him.

He still refused to go as he stretched his beautiful dark gray neck and took the lead rope; pulling her down the road.

"Hey! Ash!" she protested, digging her heels into the ground.

Snorting and trotting now, Ash didn't give her a choice.

Katarina jogged next to her stallion as no one didn't think anything of it. It was normal in some sense, because the horse was more powerful than the human by a long shot.

"Hey, Kat," she heard and passed by Casey Jones.

"Hi. Bye," she quickly replied, huffing when she was on April's farm.

Shaking his head, Casey smiled at the ground.

Inside the house, Mikey was whistling as he was washing up the dishes with soap suds up to his ears and a soap beard.

"Hey, Kat is here. Looks like Ash wanted to go for a jog," He chuckled.

Donnie smiled and said "Good. Then Leo can stop fretting so much,"

"I'm not fretting. I just don't know if her family is involved," Leo huffed back, exiting the house.

His siblings snickered as Donnie commented "I checked, their good,"

"Of course you did, genius," Raph chimed in.

Meanwhile, hunched over, Kat was sucking in as much cold air as she could. It wasn't a simple few feet from April's house to her own. No. It was a couple of miles or more.

"You alright?" Leo asked, walking over to her with a bottle of water.

"Yeah….sorry about this," she huffed out.

"Don't be. He wanted you here for some reason," Leo replied, smiling down at her.

"You think so?" she said, standing straight again.

"Yeah. Put him in the pasture and then come into the barn, I need to talk to you about the King Family," Leo said, walking to it.

Kat nodded and did just that. Ash was galloping and bucking now with joy in the fresh snow.

Shaking her head, she headed to the barn where Leo was at. Over time, Katarina got used to the mutant ninja turtles and their mutant rat father.

She wouldn't see them that much throughout the year, but around Christmas time, it always got bad for them for some strange reason in the Big City. So they would spend the Holidays here at April's.

"Alright Leo, what is it about the King Family?" she asked, wanting to get to the point.

"They have been put on noticed by the Federal Government. Someone had found something that they did that was highly illegal and they owe the IRS a lot of money. So, the IRS is taking a lot of things from them," Leo began, looking down at her.

"What? How?" Kat asked in shock.

"I can't really say what it is, since the news won't hit until tomorrow. But, you will find out soon enough," Leo replied to her.

Kat remained silent until she was shoved forward. With reflexes like lightning, Leo easily caught her in his arms.

"You okay?" he asked her, looking her over.

"Not the first or the last that I will get shoved from animal," she replied back to him.

A snort so familiar echoed in the barn that Kat looked to see.

There standing in the stall with bright pretty blue ribbon was the horse that she has been missing for 2 years now.

"Ashka," she said softly, steadying her feet and walking over to him.

Nodding his head and neighing with a stomp, Ashka was there.

"Merry Christmas, Katarina," Leo said, smiling.

"What?" she asked her eyes still on Ashka who bowed his head down to her out stretched hand.

His soft fuzzy lips nipped and tried to grip her finger tips but couldn't.

Leo smiled when she hugged her horse.

"This is one of the animals that got put up for sale in a private sale. I had April and Casey go for me," he told her.

Katarina then did something that shocked Leonardo to his core. She turned, jogged over to him, jumped and then kissed him on the lips.

Leo slowly closed his eyes and deepened the kiss as his arms wrapped and held her to him.

For over 2 years, they hung out and did things whenever they visited the country.

Softly pulling back, Kat looked down at Leo as he had raised her a little above his head "Thank you, Leo,"

"I had to get him back for you. I couldn't see the sadness growing within you anymore. I had to do it," he whispered, gently putting her down on the ground now.

Katarina smiled and said "You are so selfless. Like a Knight in shining armor,"

Chuckling, Leo then said "Maybe,"

Ashka snorted in impatience.

"Fine, baby boy," Kat said to him, walking over to him.

"Uh… there is something that you can tell me. Why does he have numbers on the bottom or top part of his lips?" Leo asked her curiously.

"Identification purposes. It's a form of tattoo," she replied, gently looking at Ashka lips.

And right there on bottom lip was the number that Kat shook her head in disgust.

"Donnie did a DNA test and he's the son of Ash," Leo then said, handing her the paperwork.

"No wonder he looks so much like Ash," Kat said, gently leading Ashka out of the stall and to his own pasture.

"Why not put them in the same pasture?" Leo asked, feeling so new to all of this.

"Because stallions can fight really badly with one another. It's always good to have some kind of barrier between the two," she answered back, shutting the gate and then letting Ashka run.

Ashka did gallop out fast from her; ears pinned to his neck, bucking and neighing loudly as his dad came galloping with ease beside him.

"Merry Christmas, Katarina," Leo whispered to her, his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Merry Christmas Leonardo," She whispered back, watching her 2 stallions with new hope.

_**FIN**_


End file.
